Woman sues Google claiming she lost “thousands” through Google Play Store hack

Susan Harvey, a woman from Madera, CA, recently filed a lawsuit against Google (PDF) alleging that she lost thousands of dollars over 16 months due to her Google Play store account being hacked. In her complaint, filed in a US District Court in Eastern California, Harvey also says that when she reported the incident to Google, representatives from the company didn't believe her claims. Even after she convinced them that the transactions were fraudulent, Harvey alleges the company never made good on its promise to reimburse her.

In March 2013, Harvey bought her first Android phone and signed in using her existing Google e-mail address. She set up an account with Google using her Bank of America debit card and downloaded a trial version of a game. A little later, she updated the game to the full version. For over a year, Harvey did not notice any issues with Google Play store transactions.

By August 2014, Harvey bought a second Android phone and wanted to transfer an app she purchased in 2013 to the new phone. “Plaintiff logged on to her Google account through her computer and was notified through her Google dashboard that there were one hundred and nine (109) transactions on her account,” the complaint alleges. “Upon clicking on the appropriate tab on Google’s website, Plaintiff was shocked to find approximately six hundred and fifty (650) listed transactions, the majority of which were unrecognizable to Plaintiff, and certainly not transactions conducted by Plaintiff.”

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